My Genealogy Hound

DOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN was born in Anderson County, Ky., January 22, 1821, and is the third in a family of four children born to William and Fannie (Hawkins) Zimmerman, both natives of Culpeper County, Va., and of German and English descent respectively. William Zimmerman, when a young man removed to Jessamine County, Ky., where he was afterward married and where he was extensively engaged in farming and stock-raising. Later he removed to Anderson County, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in 1865, in his seventy-seventh year. He was a veteran of the war of 1812. Douglas Zimmerman was employed on his father’s farm until he attained his majority, after which he was employed at teaching school and selling and teaching music for some three or four years. He has more than ordinary talent for music, at which he excelled in early life. He was also and is still recognized as one of the best and most natural mathematicians in this part of the country. In 1849 he moved to Paducah, and the following year came to Hickman County, Ky., where he was engaged in the music business. During the winter of 1850 and 1851 he taught music at New Orleans. In 1852 he returned to Anderson County, Ky., where he was united in marriage to Miss Adaline Cornell, a native of Anderson County, and a relative of Gov. Cornell of New York. Eight children blessed their union, five of whom—three sons and two daughters—are yet living. In 1853, Mr. Zimmerman came back to Hickman County, Ky., where he was soon afterward elected school commissioner of the county, which office he held for some fifteen years. During these years he was also engaged in agricultural pursuits and in the cotton trade, owning and running a large cotton gin, and in merchandising at Clinton and Columbia, continuing the latter for several years after the late civil war. Mr. Zimmerman now resides on his farm two and one-half miles east of Columbus on the Clinton Road, where he has been extensively engaged in farming and stock-raising for several years. He owns well improved farms in Hickman County, amounting to some 500 acres; he also owns lands in Florida. Mr. Zimmerman was a soldier in the Second Kentucky Regiment of Volunteers, known as the Salt River Tigers, during the war with Mexico, and served under Gen. Taylor at the battle of Buena Vista. Both Mr. Zimmerman and wife are members of the Christian Church. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the I. O. O. F. In politics he is a Democrat.